Gaming devices currently employ bill acceptors which arrange and store bills in a receptacle or cash box. Collection personnel in casinos or other gaming establishments regularly open gaming devices to access the bill acceptors and remove the bills. It is not uncommon for gaming devices to store $20,000 or more between collection cycles, and thus operators of gaming machines take special precautions to safeguard such devices.
Accordingly, secure bill acceptors have been added to different gaming devices such as slot machines and video poker machines. One drawback of certain currently available bill acceptors is that their cash boxes are difficult to access by collection personnel. For example, in some machines, bill acceptors are mounted in a large steel box on the side of the device. In other designs, the bill acceptors are mounted towards the back of the device. Collection personnel prefer that the bill acceptors be integrated into the gaming devices at locations and in arrangements such that the cash boxes are easy to access.
It should also be appreciated that gaming devices generally include a bill insertion slot in the front of the housing or cabinet of the gaming device. Preferably, this bill insertion slot is located on the gaming device in the player's cone or line of sight (i.e., the region of the gaming device in the player's view when the player is focusing on the display). However, positioning the bill acceptors in the gaming devices at locations that are easily accessible by the collection personnel has in some instances required locating the bill insertion slot outside the player's cone of sight, requiring that the player search and then reach out to the insertion slot to insert a bill. This can be awkward for the player. Gaming devices that are awkward to use may not be popular with players.
One attempt to solve this problem is to utilize movable secure bill acceptors which have bill insertion slots that are in the player's cone of sight. These movable secure bill acceptors enable the collection personnel to reposition the bill acceptor, making accessing the cash box easier. However, certain currently available bill acceptors employ piston-like devices that are subject to substantial wear. Accordingly, there is a need for a convenient bill acceptor which is not subject to substantial wear and which enables operators to easily access the cash box of the bill acceptor.